Graphic anti-abortion mailer targets docs with admitting privileges

AUSTIN — A North Texas anti-abortion group claims to have sent doctors around the state a graphic postcard — depicting what appears to be an aborted fetus — in an attempt to sway physicians with admitting privileges away from working with clinics lacking those credentials.

Life Dynamics, a Denton-based group, said this week that it mailed a postcard to “every doctors office in the state,” that reads in part: “HIRED KILLERS … they are out to recruit you.”

An Oct. 31 court ruling allowed Texas to implement a new law that requires abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals. More than a dozen clinics across the state have stopped offering the procedure since then because they don’t have doctors with admitting privileges.

“If you have admitting privileges, the abortion lobby is looking to add you to their team,” the back of the card reads, which is where the image of the fetus is shown (graphic mailers appear to be a fairly common tactic for anti-abortion folks; read here and here about similar instances).

Aside from the postcard, the group also said it blasted hospital administrators across the state with a letter — sans the image — urging them to “make certain that anyone applying for privileges is clean of an association with abortion.”